Alexa RankAlexa’s traffic rankings are based on the usage patterns of Alexa Toolbar users and data collected from other, diverse sources over a rolling 3 month period. A site’s ranking is based on a combined measure of reach and pageviews. Reach is determined by the number of unique Alexa users who visit a site on a given day. Pageviews are the total number of Alexa user URL requests for a site. However, multiple requests for the same URL on the same day by the same user are counted as a single pageview. The site with the highest combination of users and pageviews is ranked #1.

Compete VisitorsThe number of unique visitors that visited the website in August 2010 according to Compete.

Google PageRankPageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important.”

Google Reader SubscribersThe number of Google Reader users that subscribe to each blog. Note: this is not total RSS subscribers but rather how many Google Reader users subscribe to each blog.

Yahoo InlinksThe number of links going to a blog’s entire site but excluding all self-linking links.

HOW THE LIST IS COMPUTED

Several hundred blogs are reviewed in a preliminary screening to determine if their statistics are competitive enough to be ranked.